Dang, so much is happening back home! Sounds like everything is
going well though. Kaleb has a car, man so jealous haha. That's good that Drew
also came down and hung out with everyone – can’t wait to hang out with
siblings again. Seems like everyone is growing up and the world is changing,
it'll probably be a bigger shock than I think when I see you all again. Tell Maya,
I appreciate that she’s taking care of the family and serving others (way to go
sista!)
This week was a good week of work if I had to put it simply. We
dropped a bunch of our amis, like 14/26 of the amis weren’t doing anything. So
we’re now left teaching the quality people and at the same time, contacting a
lot - not a bad mixture.
Even though we’re missionaries there are always those things
that prove that we are still young men - for example - this week we started a
water drinking contest between ourselves. It was planned to go for 2 weeks,
until Elder Hatch finished his mission, and the prize was a chocolate bread and
a break soy (soy milk drink that comes from heaven. haha). The first day I
totally forgot about the competition and drank 1.5L of water, kinda a bad
start. But Thursday I came back by drinking 4.5L, 1.5 of those liters being in
one sitting after dinner! Sadly, even such a great feat wasn’t enough to
overtake Elder Hatch who drank 10L!! We talked with the senior couple and they
explained that you can get water poisoning from drinking too much water. Ohh, well that was the end of that competition
haha. Fun while it lasted.
Now instead of just telling you about all the random lessons
I've had, I decided this week to give you a walkthrough of a Sunday in the life
of a missionary. And possibly the most exhausting Sunday of my life.
Yesterday started as usual, got up and went to church around
9am. Church started on time for a change, 10 minutes early in reality! Elders
Quorum starts and it quickly goes as normal. 30 minutes of exhortations and
point-less "Jesus-talk", as I have come to call it. Just saying vague
things about Jesus and being saved that don’t help us become better people and
are used as aimless fillers. Even some of our amis use "jesus-talk",
usually when they don’t care or want to escape a hard question. But anyway,
back to elder's quorum, the lesson was good but lacked energy, and those types
of lessons suck all the energy out of you. Luckily, just before it ended, Jean,
a 70 year old ami came to church for the first time! Woohoo, keeping
commitments! With Jean, we go to the gospel principle class, and to our
surprise, 6 people in total. We being two of them. Ohh boy, another long
draining lesson about the Sabbath day. Jean is almost falling asleep, and no
one really participates but the young man did a good job teaching and put in an
honest effort - so no criticism - way to go Brother Elvis!
Finally we go to sacrament meeting and it’s a fast Sunday. Side
note, I loath fast Sunday testimony meetings. Not because the idea, but because
I have never attended a fast and testimony meeting that was 100% testimony
bearing. Someone always gives a long story or has to thank people - why? Just
get up and say what you know, that's it, nothing else. But to my great delight,
the first testimony was amazing! Brother Mbengé, who was conducting said, "I
know this is the only true church on the face of the earth. I know Joseph Smith
was a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen."
So amazing! First solid, perfect testimony I've ever heard on my
mission. The rest of the meeting was good and went as usual.
Now after church there was a meeting for adults. It’s a program
called interweave. It's a program that teaches basic management skills so that
members know how to start little businesses and run them themselves. Some successful
businessmen from Kinshasa and America came to give the class. Really cool
thing, but because all the adults were together in the class, who watched the
kids? Elder Johnson!!
Now I think God inspired this, but every Sunday one or two kids
sit next to me during sacrament, and I never have anything to entertain them
with. Usually I give them a blank paper from my planner and they draw. So this
week I was one step ahead. I pulled out all the coloring pages from old Liahona
magazines. We have an archive! So I went
to church with 8 pages and my colored pencils. As Elder Hatch noted, "Ohh
no the Daddy Johnson Sunday bag is already starting!" haha. Sitting outside church I called 4 little
girls to come sit next to me and told them they could color while their parents
were busy. It was all under control, these girls were older, maybe 7 and only
four of them. I had a system going with the pencils, they used one at a time
and if they wanted another they had to trade me. Man, I thought I was hot
stuff! Taking care of kids isn’t that hard, I smuggly thought to myself...until
all outer-darkness broke loose!
More younger children soon saw the pencils and stormed our
arrangement. The worst part is they are so young they don’t talk yet, so
absolutely no reasoning with them! One little girl just had to have 3 colors in
her hand at a time, or she would scream. Another kept wandering off. And trying
to evenly distribute the coloring pages almost started a war haha. Not to
mention all this was outside in the heat of the day. Adding to the needs, the 7
year olds kept needing to trade pencils and tried to talk with me while I’m
trying to calm these fussy toddlers. About 30 minutes after all this, reinforcements
came, Elder Hatch and Colindres finished with a lesson and joined in on the
fun.
A full hour later and VICTORY! We successful entertained all the
kids. But Sunday didn’t end there. After, we had meetings of our own. I think
you can see why Sunday was so tiring? But
it didn’t stop there either, I almost forgot, after church I was waiting for a
taxi to come by. And some punk tried to pick pocket me again! I had my white
handbook and transport money pouch in my shirt pocket. He was walking towards
me and I moved over to give him more than enough room to pass, but he pushed straight
through me (hey when you walk straight towards someone when there is no crowd
you kinda alert them. Common' basic pick-pocketing 101). Well, he tried pulling
out the handbook, but everything flopped out from the pocket. So in typical
Elder Johnson fashion, I grabbed him by his arms and started shaking him up and
demanding "What was that about uhh?"
So thus the title of my email. Pick-pocketed twice on my
mission, BUT i've always caught and stopped the thief - two for two!
That Sunday took everything out of me, emotionally, spiritually
and physically. I was really happy that night to go home and eat and sleep. But
that is missionary work - serving others and working. And I absolutely love it!
I’m sure we’ll talk about more interesting stories over our
skype session - which isn’t too far away. Think of some sweet stories you guys
can share with me as well. Don’t worry if you forget to email sometimes, I know
y'all love me and are probably just busy. I love you guys, have fun in the
snow!
ps - I never got a western union card, but luckily the senior
couple is taking a trip to America to visit grandkids in Utah the 28th Dec
until January 8th. They offered to bring anything back for us if our parents
wanted to send it to them in Utah. So possible solution, get a western union
card and mail it to them. They can bring it back. I don’t want to add things to
your plate, but a possible solution?
